Best Micro Pictures Of 2010

A collection of entries for the 2010 Small World Photo contest -
I always enjoy a new peek into our world and these shots are fresh and beautiful to the eyes. I am amazed at the colors, patterns and configurations
of these subjects. These pics could be displayed at an art gallery as fine works of the cosmos.
Not much to add other than fascinating, so I will let the pics speak for themselves....

To make the image, John Hart of the University of Colorado, Boulder, melted together sulfur (picture) and acetanilide, a toxic substance once used
as an antiseptic. The mixture then formed crystals, seen here magnified ten times under specially polarized light.

John Hart

Ropy red strands glow in a tiny slice of a Wistar rat's retina, as seen under hundred-power magnification in a prizewinning picture created by
Cameron Johnson of the University of Auckland in New Zealand.

Cameron Johnson

Rub-a-dub-dub, 16 bubbles on a microscope slide: These psychedelic orbs are tiny circles of soap film, photographed with simple lighting and
150-power magnification.

Gerd Guenther

Glowing balls of pollen stick to the stigma of a four o'clock flower in this multiple-exposure composite image by Robert Markus of the Hungarian
Academy of Sciences. The picture was made with fluorescent light, which caused the pollen to light up blue.

Robert Markus

Acid harvested from a lichen plant is seen in polarized light at ten-power magnification

Ralf Wagner

This lucky mushroom coral—photographed at 166-power magnification by James Nicholson at a U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) facility in Charleston, South Carolina—got to enjoy its time in the micro-spotlight while still alive.

James Nicholson

Cancerous cells glow green thanks to a genetic insertion of green fluorescent protein. (Learn more about GFP in our glowing-animals photo
gallery.) Paul D. Andrews of the University of Dundee in Scotland created the picture using fluorescent light.

Paul D. Andrews

This picture, made by Yanping Wang of the Beijing Language and Culture University in China, shows the salty condiment crystallized, under 16-power
magnification.

Yanping Wang

Apparently not content with their work during the Black Death, fleas have now invaded the world of microscope photography. Duane Harland captured
this dog flea, or Ctenocephalides canis, with fluorescent light at ten-power magnification, winning ninth place in the 2010 Small World
Microphotography Competition.

Duane Harland

No, it's not gumball machine merchandise. Pictured magnified 18 times, the mineral cacoxenite is found in some iron ores and is considered a
nuisance, as it lowers the quality of the iron.

Honorio Cocera-La Parra

You're filled with these, most likely: endothelial cells, which line the interiors of blood vessels, capillaries, arteries, and your heart. The
cells help hold blood in and encourage it to move along, discouraging clots. In smokers, endothelial cells start misbehaving early on, and are thought
to be useful predictors of heart attacks or strokes.

Yongli Shan

Pictured in ordinary light, a red seaweed of the genus Martensia is shown under 40-power magnification in an image by John Huisman of Murdoch
University in Australia.

John Huisman

The olfactory bulbs, or smell organs, of zebrafish are seen in a 250-power magnified image by Oliver Braubach of Dalhousie University, in Halifax,
Nova Scotia.

Oliver Braubach

TextZebrafish were popular this year (see previous photo). This 20-power picture of a five-day-old zebrafish's head by Hideo Otsuna of the
University of Utah in Salt Lake City placed second in the competition.

Hideo Otsuna

Spread by mosquitoes, malaria kills someone every 30 seconds. Researcher Jonas King, of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, hopes to do
something about it, and his hundred-power image of a mosquito heart might help.

Awesome thread! This kind of stuff fascinates me. It's almost like a whole other world and size can behave like another dimension all together. It's
just how small matter can be broken down to. Anyway, S&F!

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